Hands
by BBQkitten
Summary: His body was frozen. He couldn't move, couldn't feel—couldn't breathe. It was cold. So very cold. Ichigo could hear a voice calling to him. It was soft, warm—so warm. But he couldn't hear the words. The harsh, freezing wind drowned out the warm voice until all he could hear was the whooshing of the wind in his ears. Established Relationship. Requested by YaoiFanGirl.


**Disclaimer: Don't own anything.**

It was cold. So very cold.

Ichigo wrapped his arms tighter around his body as another chill went through him. Why was he so cold?

"Ichigo-kun," a soft voice murmured, kneeling down next to the trembling boy. "It's all over Ichigo, let's go find Retsu." The white haired captain held out a pale hand for the boy to take but he didn't react, he just kept shivering.

Why was it so cold? Ichigo wondered. Cold was bad. Cold meant winter. Winter meant death. Nothing good ever came because of the cold. The rain was cold the day his mother died. It pierced his skin, freezing his heart in the process. _No, don't think about it._ He had to get warm but how did he get so cold in the first place? It was summer. He was never cold in summer. What happened? Why couldn't he remember?

Ichigo could hear a voice calling to him. It was soft, warm—so warm. But he couldn't hear the words. The harsh, freezing wind drowned out the warm voice until all he could hear was the whooshing of the wind in his ears.

So cold.

When Ichigo didn't take Ukitake's hand, the white haired captain stood up from his crouched position and looked around. When he found who he was looking for he waved the kind woman over.

"I see you found Kurosaki-kun," she stated, kneeling down next to the child and putting a hand on his chest to feel for his heart beat. Ichigo let out a soft moan and but released a small whimper when she pulled away. "That wound is deep, please stand back Juushiro." Ukitake nodded and backed up a few steps to watch, a worried look on his face. Something was seriously wrong with Ichigo and it wasn't just a physical wound.

Ichigo heard another warm voice over the wind but this one didn't fill his entire body with warmth like the other one did. It was softer, quieter, harder to hear, but it was warm nonetheless so Ichigo took what he could get. Then, the most pleasurable feeling since this cold had come overcame him. It was a fire, right above his heart that spread through his body like a wild fire. He moaned in happiness as he regained the feeling in his fingers and toes. The cold backed off to a mere breeze that gently pushed his hair. It was a joyous feeling but as quickly as it came it was gone again. Ichigo whimpered. He would've screamed if he had been able to but he couldn't take a deep enough breath in order to do so. Ichigo wanted the fire back. He wanted to be burned alive by that flame. The cold had come back even colder and shivers wracked his body.

_Please come back fire._

Juushiro stood behind his friend as she worked on closing Ichigo's wound. Shunsui came up to stand beside his friend, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "He'll be alright, Juu-chan. He always is."

The thirteenth division captain nodded his head absentmindedly, his gaze focused solely on the boy who was currently shaking like a leaf in front of him. "Do you know why he's shaking?" Ukitake asked.

Shunsui sighed sadly, "Apparently, it was part of the enemy's attack. It sends the victims into hallucinatory state and causes them to feel as though they are in the middle of a blizzard. It forces all of their bad memories to the surface and causes them to feel an overwhelming helplessness. The twelfth division is working on an antidote but until they figure out a cure there isn't anything anyone can do besides heal their physical wounds."

Ukitake nodded and watched as the shivering boy was placed on a stretcher and taken away. Unohana walked over to the two captains and placed a sympathetic hand on the white haired man's shoulder. "He'll be alright, Juushiro. This is Kurosaki Ichigo we're talking about. He always is."

Somehow, Ukitake just couldn't believe that.

His body was frozen. He couldn't move, couldn't feel—couldn't breathe.

He wanted the fire back. He could feel himself being moved. There were small bursts of warmth that flitted across his skin before they vanished again. _Stop teasing me!_ Ichigo wanted to scream, he wanted to move his body away from this stinging cold, he wanted to open his eyes and search for the fire, he wanted to do a lot of things—but he couldn't do any of them.

Ichigo was left alone for a while in the blizzard. He could hear voices, some warm, speak in hushed whispers every once in a while. The first voice, the one that filled him with warmth, spoke a lot. It was always close to him, covering him like a large blanket.

Then the fire started again. This time, it was in the palm of his right hand. It made him feel so warm. The fire slowly crept up his arm and slowly, painfully slowly, the fire warmed his body. The fire had a fierce grip on his hand for the longest time, long enough for it to travel half way down his legs. He felt that, if the fire were to continue, he would be able to unfreeze his closed eyelids and see the source of his warmth with his own two eyes.

When the fire's grip began to lessen, Ichigo panicked and grabbed a hold of the fire with his own hand causing it to reaffirm its grip. The warm voice spoke, loudly, breaking through the windy barrier. "Retsu, I think he's waking up!" It sounded excited, happy, and Ichigo couldn't help but think that the elation in its voice was because of him.

The voice sounded so familiar, like an old friend that he hadn't heard in a long time. It made him happy. It made him want to hear it again. It made him want to open his eyes and see this old friend for himself.

It made him want to live.

Juushiro never left his side. From the moment Ichigo had been placed in the Fourth Ukitake sat dutifully next to the shivering boy. Sometimes he would whisper to him when they were alone, begging for him to wake up. Other times he would simply tell stories about his youth, just in case on the off chance that Ichigo could hear him. Shunsui visited a lot, keeping his fellow captain company as they waited for him to wake up. Ukitake's third seats came often too, and they always came weighted down in paper work that he had to do. For once, the two weren't bickering. They were somber and reserved whenever they came by; it was like they were afraid their voices would upset the fragile boy lying unconscious in bed next to their captain.

Ukitake also saw a lot of Renji. The poor boy was hopping between Ichigo's and Rukia's rooms. Rukia had been struck down with the same weapon as Ichigo, and Renji was handling the situation about as well as Ukitake, himself, was. He felt bad for the boy and always tried to strike up a conversation with him whenever he stopped by. Renji never said much but he did find out that Byakuya hadn't left Rukia's room much either except when he absolutely had to. It made Juushiro proud to know that Byakuya was finally taking his big brother responsibilities seriously.

There was one thing, however, that Ukitake hadn't done yet, and that was touch Ichigo. He was so scared of hurting the child, not knowing exactly what was wrong with him, that he didn't even want to touch him. But after a week, Juushiro couldn't take the reclusiveness anymore and hesitantly reached out to touch Ichigo's hand.

He was barely touching the orange haired Shinigami at first but once he saw how much tension was released from Ichigo's body he held on more firmly. They stayed like that for hours, Ichigo slowly becoming more relaxed as the minutes passed. Ukitake had laid his head down on the bed, their hands still firmly connected, when he began to nod off and his grip loosened. Before he could fully fall asleep, however, the hand he had been holding squeezed his own in an almost panicked sort of way. Juushiro jumped back in to his previous sitting position and looked down at their clasped hands in astonishment. Had Ichigo really squeezed back?

To test this theory, he relaxed his hand and allowed his fingers to fall away from the tanned skin. In response, Ichigo's hand tightened around his own in an almost painful grip.

"Retsu," He called, standing up while keeping Ichigo's hand firmly in his. "I think he's waking up!" Ukitake couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice as he told his friend the great news.

She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, "What makes you say that, Juushiro-kun?"

Ukitake sat back down and focused on their clasped hands, "Watch." He repeated his test and received the almost-painful squeeze from his little lover's hand.

"Oh my," she gasped, bringing a hand to rest on top of the intertwined hands. "How long have you been holding his hand?"

Ukitake shook his head, "I don't know. Hours?"

Unohana nodded thoughtfully, "Perhaps if you were to touch more of him he would wake up. It's just a theory of mine however, so don't get your hopes up. We're still waiting for the twelfth to finish the antidote." Juushiro nodded and looked back at Ichigo. "I'm going to go and alert the others. Hopefully the other victims will respond to touching too."

Juushiro nodded again, too focused on Ichigo to hear what Retsu was saying. Slowly, he brought a hand up to Ichigo's cheek and gently cupped his chin.

Suddenly, the fire increased tenfold.

Ichigo almost cried in happiness. He could feel the ice on his face melting as the fire consumed him. It was so hot it almost hurt after being cold for so long. He couldn't hear the raging wind at all anymore; it was drowned out by the quiet murmurings of the voice.

"Wake up."

All of a sudden, a searing heat was pressed against his lips and he was able to gasp, taking a much needed breath of air as his eyes flew open.

Juushiro froze when he heard the gasp and opened his eyes only to be met with a pair of soft brown eyes.

"I-Ichigo?"

Ichigo gave him a small smile, "Juushiro."

"Ichigo!" Juushiro wrapped his arms around the boy in a tight hug. "You're awake! I was so worried. Don't ever scare me like that again!"

Ichigo chuckled and returned the hug as best he could with his arms pinned to his sides by his eccentric lover's. "I'm sorry, Juushiro. I didn't mean to scare you."

"I was gone for not even five minutes," Unohana said, breaking the two out of their little world. "How did this happen?"

Ukitake blushed, "I kissed him."

Unohana smiled at her embarrassed friend before becoming serious again, "We need to know if he's completely healed. You need to let go of his hand, Juushiro."

Juushiro became scared; he didn't want Ichigo to fall back into that chilly sleep. Ichigo squeezed his hand comfortingly, "It'll be alright, Juushiro. If I do go back under I'll know that you will come to rescue me again." He gave the tired man a smile and loosened his grip. "Just let go."

Slowly, Juushiro released his grip on Ichigo and they all waited for what seemed like forever for something to happen. Nothing did.

After five minutes, Ichigo gave Ukitake a beaming smile. "I still feel fine." Unohana nodded and turned to leave, telling them to notify her if anything changed.

Ukitake smiled and leaned in to Ichigo, giving him chaste kiss. "I missed you," He murmured against his lover's lips.

"I missed you too."

**AN: Okay! This was a requested fic for one of my anonomyous reviewers named YaoiFanGirl. Please tell me what you guys thought of this. Good or bad, I want to hear it.**

**ALSO! If you have a paring that you want me to do you can leave it in a review or PM and I will try my hardest to do it for you!**

**REVIEW! :)**


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